(Washington, D. C.) The Commerce Department's Bureau of Export Administration (BXA) today imposed a $402,000 civil penalty on South Dakota based Gateway 2000, Inc. to settle charges that the company violated U.S. export control requirements when it sent U.S. origin computer systems to 16 countries, including Iran, Syria and China, Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement Amanda DeBusk announced.

The Department alleged that on 30 separate occasions between February 1992 and April 1993, Gateway 2000, Inc. exported computer systems from the U.S. without the required validated export licenses. All of the computers contained 486 chips and had composite theoretical performance (CTP) levels ranging from 18.61 to 24.82 MTOPS (millions of theoretical operations per second). At the time of the alleged exports, computers with MTOPS of over 12.5 required export licenses to the 16 countries involved. The Department also alleged that, in each case, Gateway 2000 knew that a license was required and that, in connection with 27 of these exports, the company filed Shipper's Export Declarations which contained false or misleading statements of material fact.

Gateway 2000 agreed to pay a $402,000 civil penalty to settle the allegations that it committed 87 violations of the Export Administration Regulations. The company cooperated fully with the Departmentís investigation, which was conducted by the Office of Export Enforcementís Chicago field office.

The Department of Commerce, through its Bureau of Export Administration, administers and enforces export controls for reasons of national security, foreign policy, nonproliferation, and short supply. Criminal penalties, as well as administrative sanctions, can be imposed for violations.